* Kathy Salvi was elected chair of the Illinois Republican Party today…
Today, The State Central Committee of the Illinois Republican Party elected Kathy Salvi as the next Chair by acclimation, with a start date of July 19th in accordance with outgoing Chairman Don Tracy’s resignation.
Chairman Tracy released the following statement following the election of the new Chair:
“Congratulations to Kathy Salvi for taking on this challenging yet important position to build a brighter future for Illinois. Republicans in this state are united behind President Trump and understand that the Biden/Pritzker agenda is wrong for our families. We will show in Milwaukee this week that we are unified in purpose - to make this state and this country great once again with a message of hope and prosperity for the future.”
Following today’s vote by acclamation to elect Kathy Salvi as the next Chair of the Illinois Republican Party, the Chairwoman-Elect released the following statement:
“It is an honor to be recognized by my fellow Illinois Republicans as the next Chair of the Illinois Republican Party. As we prepare to nominate the next President of the United States, Illinois stands as a testament to what Democrat governance can do: out of control cost of living, rampant crime, and rife with corruption. Illinois Republicans will stand and fight for our conservative ideals and set this state, and nation, back on the right track.
Thank you Chairman Tracy for your commitment to this State and our Party.”
…Adding… DPI…
In response to the election of Kathy Salvi as the new ILGOP Chair, the Democratic Party of Illinois issued the following statement:
“We are not surprised to see the ILGOP pick a far-right extremist to sit at the head of their party. However, we are surprised that they chose someone whose draconian views on abortion will almost certainly drag down their entire Republican ticket. The ILGOP is littered with anti-abortion extremists, but it is now chaired by someone who once opposed abortions for victims of rape, saying, ‘abortion only adds insult to injury.’ The election of Kathy Salvi is not just a threat to the ILGOP’s ill-fated ticket, but to women all across our state.
Kathy Salvi’s extreme stances on healthcare, immigration, and women’s rights are fundamentally at odds with the values of Illinois working families. Salvi will fit right in with the modern-day ILGOP as she is no stranger to losing elections. We defeated Kathy Salvi and MAGA extremism across Illinois in 2022, and we are more determined than ever to combat the ILGOP’s far-right agenda at the ballot box this November. While the ILGOP is in turmoil, we are focused on electing leaders who will enhance access to affordable healthcare, defend reproductive rights, and promote inclusive policies that benefit all Illinoisans.”
Kathy Salvi, who was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for U.S. Senate against Sen. Tammy Duckworth in 2022, has consistently aligned herself with far-right ideologies that Illinois voters have repeatedly rejected. Her failed Senate run underscores the state’s rejection of her regressive policies. Now, as the new ILGOP Chair, Salvi’s leadership threatens to drag the party even further into the depths of extremism, away from the values that define our diverse and inclusive state.
Nine months after cash bail ended in Illinois, the state is taking its first steps in publishing the data that crafters of the bail reform law saw as essential to judging its effectiveness.
The data shows that judges in the 75 counties served by the Illinois Supreme Court’s Office of Statewide Pretrial Services had collectively issued failure-to-appear warrants in just 5% of more than 28,000 court dates as of Friday. Judges had approved about 63% of petitions to detain a defendant pretrial that were sent to them by prosecutors.
The OSPS, launched in 2021 to provide things like pretrial safety assessments and electronic monitoring for 75 of Illinois’ 102 counties, published the data in a new dashboard this week. It represents a key – but still early and incomplete – step in tracking Illinois’ progress as the first state to fully end cash bail through a wide-ranging criminal justice reform known as the SAFE-T Act. […]
The data showed that about 52% of cases that were subject to an OSPS pretrial investigation contained at least one offense considered “detainable” under the SAFE-T Act. As of June 28, prosecutors had petitioned the court to detain the defendant in 62% of those cases.
The fact that judges approved 63% of those petitions, [retired Cook County Judge Cara Smith] said, was evidence the system was working.
*** Statewide ***
* Crain’s | Retail marijuana lottery winners avoid losing their licenses: Just one winner of a cannabis dispensary license is at risk of losing it today when a deadline hits for pot-shop licensees to have found a location for their stores. It’s a far lower number than many had feared. The state used lotteries to award 185 new dispensary licenses in the summer of 2022, which would nearly double the number of marijuana shops. Winners originally had up to a year to get stores open or find a location, but the deadline was extended last year by legislators.
*** Chicago ***
* Block Club | As Tent Cities Are Cleared, Unhoused Residents Ask Why It Took DNC For City To Offer Housing: Encampment residents told Block Club city outreach workers have been visiting in recent weeks to offer them rooms in coveted city-run shelters, including the former Tremont Hotel, 100 E. Chestnut St. in the Gold Coast, which was bought by the city last year and has only 60 beds. Those who accept the beds can keep them until Aug. 31, Berg said. The convention is Aug. 19-22.
* Jinx Press | 14th District Oath Keeper cop interfered with DCFS investigation, removed from SWAT for unknown incident: As detailed in that investigation, Sergeant Nowacki was suspended for three days in 2008 after sending insulting, racially charged emails to a Black community member in Englewood who was soliciting donations for area families. Rather than serve the suspension, Nowacki forfeited three days of banked compensatory time. Records detailing a December 2020 incident, however, also illustrate his disturbing animosity on duty toward a Department of Child and Family Services worker. The worker, identified as a Black male, filed a complaint after a well-being check where Nowacki was belligerent.
* Tribune | Mayor Johnson to name former progressive North Side alderman Shiller to zoning board: The former alderman — a close ally of current 46th Ward Ald. Angela Clay — was both lionized and lambasted for campaigning as a “champion of the poor” in Uptown as it underwent much transformation. Johnson tapping her addresses his stated values on railing against rich elites while also potentially smoothing over an earlier snafu with a homeless shelter proposal in Uptown that failed.
*** Cook County and Suburbs ***
* Shaw Local | Joliet police officer wins part of federal appeal in privacy lawsuit case: A federal appeals court reversed the dismissal of a Joliet police officer’s claim that a detective intruded on her privacy by intentionally accessing a nude photo on her cellphone. […] The ruling followed an April 3 court hearing where the Will County search warrant for the officer’s phone was sharply criticized by U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas Kirsch. […] “I can’t believe a judge signed this warrant to say, ‘You can search the entire contents of someone’s phone to look for one text message.’ And then McKinney just happens to be searching around in Cellebrite. …And guess what? He happens upon the naked pictures that everybody is talking about in the police department. It’s weird. It’s troubling, right?” Kirsch said.
* Aurora Beacon-News | Aurora to buy seven properties along Bilter Road: City officials have said they are interested in assembling the land in the hopes of marketing it to a residential developer, in an effort to keep potential industrial uses out of what the city considers more of a residential area. Officials have said an industrial user was interested in the properties, and would generate too much truck traffic for the area.
*** Downstate ***
* BND | $20 million Belleville training center part of vision to make Illinois a manufacturing hub: Construction of the academy on the northwest corner of the Belleville campus began in September 2022. Now outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment, the facility will officially open its doors in the upcoming semester to provide students with more training opportunities in the growing manufacturing sector. According to a recent Deloitte study, U.S. manufacturing could need as many as 3.8 million new employees by 2033 as investment drives the sector’s growth, but half of those jobs could go unfilled if workforce challenges aren’t addressed.
* WCIA | Protestors rally at Sangamon Co. Sheriff’s Office after woman’s death: Two sheriff’s deputies responded to [Sonya] Massey’s home just after midnight on July 6. Family and friends at the rally say Massey was the one that called the police. She was allegedly worried there was someone trying to break in, according to the county. After being on scene for half an hour, one of the deputies shot Massey. She was taken to the hospital, where she died from the gunshot wound, according to the Coroner.
* Capitol City Now | Attorney Ben Crump retained by family of Sonya Massey: Attorney Ben Crump, who specializes in civil rights and personal injury cases such as wrongful death lawsuits, announced Thursday the family of Sonya Massey has retained his services. Some of the well-known cases Crump has been a part of include Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown and George Floyd. Crump is known for taking on cases involving police misconduct. The investigation into Massey’s death by Illinois State Police is ongoing. Wednesday, Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell urged the public and media to be patient as ISP completes its investigation.
* WCBU | Peoria County Board isn’t keen on a 15-year delay to build new landfill: There’s essentially two parallel stories happening in the ongoing landfill saga. On one track, the regulatory process to start construction of the new landfill is still slowly moving forward. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources doesn’t believe abandoned underground mines pose an impediment to continuing development on the proposed site, but the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency still needs to sign off.
* KSDK | ‘It’s shocking’: Gov. Pritzker after Alton sinkhole swallows soccer field: “We’re working very hard to make sure that’s not a problem going forward,” [Pritzker] said. “Of course, we got the federal government involved. We’re going to make sure we’re doing everything we can. It’s shocking, really. I’m so glad nobody was on the field when it happened. But, the question is why did it happen, and what is the federal government going to do to make sure it never happens again?” Our newsroom has seen chatter online and reporting by other news outlets that the Alton sinkhole is growing. Our reporter checked in with a representative for the New Frontier crews on the ground to verify this on Thursday. The company representative tells us the sinkhole itself hasn’t grown in size since the initial collapse.
*** National ***
* AP | Small Nashville museum wants you to know why it is returning artifacts to Mexico: When Bonnie Seymour took a job as assistant curator of Nashville’s Parthenon museum, one of the first things she did was to look through the collections. Among paintings by American artists and memorabilia from Tennessee’s 1897 Centennial Exposition — the event for which the Parthenon was built — she found a random assortment of pre-Columbian pottery from Mexico. The artifacts had almost no identifying information, and Seymour knew next to nothing about them. But she knew they did not belong in a Nashville storage room.
Today, the Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office (CROO) published the Disparity and Availability Study for adult use cannabis licenses in Illinois finding that Illinois currently has the most diverse cannabis industry in the nation. The study, as required by the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (CRTA), examined 559 adult use cannabis licenses issued by the State to more than 400 businesses during the study period, which spanned from the start of adult use cannabis sales, January 1, 2020, through January 31, 2023.
The disparity study found the CRTA successfully resulted in license ownership diversity for each license type with new licenses over the study period. Over the study period, 59% of dispensary licenses were issued to minority- or women-owned businesses (compared to 21% for the medical cannabis market). For all licenses issued by the State, that number jumps to 60%. Additionally, minority- or women-owned businesses held 63% of craft grower, 61% of infuser, and 74% of transporter licenses. Additionally, the study found nearly 84% of the State’s Direct Forgivable Loans went to minority- or women-owned businesses. According to this independent review, these demographics make Illinois the most diverse cannabis industry in the nation. Since 2023, IDFPR has conducted another Social Equity Criteria Lottery and issued 55 more conditional licenses, all going to social equity designated businesses.
To cultivate a more inclusive and equitable industry we recommend the following:
• Broaden availability of financing: Findings from our focus group conversations with cannabis business holders and applicants across license types, coupled with our survey analysis, suggest a need for additional revenue sources for the Cannabis Business Development Fund to improve sustainability and increase access to capital for more businesses.
• Unify data systems and additional data management: Interviews with industry leaders indicate a need for a centralized data system to ensure the state’s licensing, enforcement, and case management systems are compatible and unified to improve tracking, monitoring, and supporting cannabis businesses across the entire industry.
• Consolidate regulatory structure: Based on our assessment of the quantitative and
qualitative analyses, we recommend centralizing the five main regulatory agencies’ cannabis units into one, unified department with clear accountability to the governor and public. Consolidation would allow for a more seamless and coordinated approach to operationalize the application process and business regulatory practices in support of all extant and future cannabis license holders in an equitable and just manner. […]
• Additional administrative recommendations:
o Allow SEAs [Social Equity Applicants] to obtain a social equity business designation after receiving a cannabis license. This will allow for continued support for SEAs after they become licensed, provided they maintain their status as a social equity business.
o Implement a no-change affidavit for license renewals: simplify the renewal process for businesses that have no changes in ownership or management.
o Implement a sliding scale for licensing renewal fees based on sales: set renewal fees based on sales to improve equity in license renewal.
o Implement a third-party transport mandate: codify a statutory change for transportation so that businesses can only transport up to a certain amount of their inventory transfers, like the rule for dispensaries to have no more than 40% of their inventory from one source.
o Allow infusers to apply for processing licenses: allow infusing organizations to apply for the ability to process and extract cannabis products from raw materials and contribute to an adequate supply of distillate.
Illinois has reached a significant milestone in marijuana sales, hitting the $1 billion mark so far this year. […]
Governor Pritzker said in a statement that “the increase in total adult-use marijuana sales, combined with the policies my administration is implementing to support communities ravaged by the War on Drugs, highlights how this emerging industry is helping us set a national standard in equity and economic justice. Growing sales in 2024 means marijuana tax revenue will continue to play a major role in righting decades of wrongs in the state’s criminal justice system.” […]
Marijuana sales have generated over $244 million in tax revenue, which the state has allocated to grants for youth development, economic development, and violence prevention programs. This funding also enabled the establishment of the Illinois Cannabis Social Equity Loan program. This initiative aims to support communities that have been disproportionately affected by marijuana-related criminal justice issues by linking them to the legal marijuana industry. Through this social equity program, the state has distributed nearly $22 million in forgivable loans to craft growers, transporters, and infusers.
Tax revenue from cannabis sales has now put more than $244 million toward grants to encourage economic development, violence prevention and youth development in areas disproportionately impacted by cannabis arrests and imprisonment, the state said on Wednesday. And through its Cannabis Social Equity Loan Program, “almost $22 million in forgivable loans has been issued to social equity craft growers, transporters, and infusers.”
More of the loans are expected to be awarded soon following an April deadline in the latest round. The state also says more full dispensary licenses will be awarded “to conditional licensees selected in the 2022 and 2023 lotteries as they meet the requirements for full licensure.”
“It is imperative barriers are removed to ensure workforces and industries reflect the diversity of the population who calls Illinois home,” said Mario Treto Jr., secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. “We are already seeing the results of our efforts to accomplish this, and I am excited to see what the future holds for the cannabis industry across Illinois.”
* Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton…
“When we legalized cannabis in Illinois, we didn’t just want to create a new industry – we wanted to right some wrongs. This report shows we’re doing just that. We’re seeing people who’ve been left out of opportunities for too long now owning businesses and creating jobs in their communities. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s progress we can be proud of. Every new shop that opens, every loan that helps a small business get started, that’s another step towards making things right. We’re showing the rest of the country that when you put fairness first, everyone wins.”
* More…
* SJ-R | Missouri-based marijuana dispensary opens first Illinois location in Springfield: The location has four owners who operate together. Co-owner Mit Patell said the choice to move to Springfield was an easy one, in part because of other products being sold in the city. “We felt like a lot of dispensaries here were not to-par with what we had to offer,” Patel said. “Our scale and our products we have… we carry a lot more than other dispensaries around here.”
Today, the Pritzker Administration announced that SEquity Ventures (LLC dba The Dispensary Champaign) became the 100th social equity cannabis dispensary to open its doors in Illinois. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) issued a full adult use cannabis dispensary license to The Dispensary Champaign on June 6, 2024, who applied for and was selected in the Social Equity Criteria Lottery (SECL) and met the lottery’s criteria.
“From day one of legal cannabis sales in Illinois, my administration has been committed to making sure we don’t sacrifice a fair, equitable opportunity to join the industry – while also undoing decades of wrongs in the failed War on Drugs – just for the economic gains,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “More than three years later, we’ve consistently learned and made our industry more accessible, while also seeing strong, consistent year-over-year revenue growth.”
The Dispensary Champaign celebrated this major milestone with a ribbon cutting ceremony at their new storefront located at 1826 Glen Park Drive, Champaign, IL. The ceremony was attended by IDFPR Secretary Mario Treto, Jr., Cannabis Regulation Oversight Officer Erin Johnson, and other industry leaders.
Announcer: The scandal of the century. Our president lacks the mental fitness for office, and Eric Sorensen covered it up. Sorensen met privately with Joe Biden. He witnessed Biden’s mental failures up close, but allowed crises to rage under Biden’s frail leadership.
Now, Eric Sorenson ignores our concerns.
Interviewer: You’re confident in his ability to serve another term as president?
Sorensen: I just don’t think that my opinion matters.
Announcer: Tell Eric Sorensen to stop defending Biden when he knows the truth.
Yesterday, the window to apply to be the next chair of the Illinois Republican Party closed. The applicants for the position are as follows in alphabetical order by last name:
Rep. John Cabello
Aaron Del Mar
Kathy Salvi
A meeting will be held on Friday for applicants to make their case. This meeting is not open to press. When voting occurs, the State Central Committee will decide based on a weighted vote system by congressional district. The district with the most Republican ballots cast carries the most weight, and so on down.
The Illinois Republican State Central Committee (SCC) will be meeting tomorrow to consider how to fill the vacancy left by Chairman Don Tracy, who resigned in June. We are only aware of a couple of candidates who are up for consideration. Of course, we want to see someone who is fully committed to uphold the planks on the sanctity of human life, marriage, family, immigration security and religious liberty.
Therefore, we wholeheartedly endorse Kathy Salvi for the next Illinois GOP chair. In fact, we don’t think we could ask for a better person to serve in that role. The 64-year-old mother of six adult children is the wife of former State Representative Al Salvi (1993-1996), who was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in 1996 and Illinois Secretary of State in 1998.
We have complete confidence that Kathy is not only a true conservative, but one who will fight to keep the aforementioned planks in the Illinois GOP Platform.
Angry, Bitter Don Tracy Meddling in IL GOP Chairman’s Race as SSC Rushes Selection to Appoint New State Party Chair
With the Republican National Convention just days away, the Illinois Republican State Central Committee is moving at warp speed to appoint a new state party chairman as Republicans across the state raise concerns about the vetting process and the need for transparency as candidates jockey to be the next leader of the Illinois Republican Party. […]
For the last two years, Salvi has defended outgoing chairman Don Tracy, co-hosted state party fundraisers with Tracy, and was endorsed by gubernatorial candidate Richard Irvin during the 2022 election cycle. Irvin was the state party’s favorite candidate – and Tracy’s too, although he won’t admit it – during the 2022 primary, but lost in a landslide to the conservative grassroots-backed candidate by 43 points. And during the primary campaign, it was reported by WTTW’s Paris Schutz that in 2018, Irvin sent text messages calling Trump an “idiot” and a “bigoted racist.” Irvin also texted the friend, “I hate Trump too!”
In conservative circles across the state, many believe that Tracy is propping up Salvi to be his heir apparent, and multiple party insiders have shared with this publication that a backroom deal has been struck that gives Salvi the chairmanship and Jason Plummer – a downstate Republican state senator, the vice chair position. Plummer works closely with Tracy’s sister-in-law, State Sen. Jill Tracy, who serves alongside Plummer in the state senate and is the Senate Republican Whip.
Gov. JB Pritzker signed legislation Wednesday that puts new controls on the state’s health insurance industry, including bans on certain practices companies have used to reduce costs by controlling the amount of health care services a patient receives.
The Health Care Protection Act, House Bill 5395, was among Pritzker’s top legislative priorities during the just-completed legislative session.
Pritzker also signed House Bill 2499, which bans the sale of short-term, limited-duration insurance plans in Illinois – policies Pritzker and other critics refer to as “junk insurance” because they are not required to meet the minimum standards under the federal Affordable Care Act. […]
Among other things, the Health Care Protection Act bars the use of a restriction known as “step therapy,” also known as a “fail first” provision, that requires a patient to try and fail on one or more treatments preferred by the insurance company before they can access a treatment recommended by their doctor.
Gov. Pritzker caught on hot mic at Chicago event saying, "I don't like where we are…" about the presidential race. "I mean, we're just going to keep fighting. I don't know what to say. You know, got to do what we have to do." https://t.co/aaDYk8C4K0
“I mean, we’re just going to keep fighting. I don’t know what to say. You know, got to do what we have to do,” Pritzker was heard saying to a man at the event. “I don’t like where we are, but…”
Jordan Abudayyeh, deputy chief of communications for Gov. Pritzker’s office, said it “sounds like [Pritzker] was talking about the state of the presidential race.”
At 11, Governor Pritzker will attend the opening of new St. Clair County Public Safety Center. At 2:15 he will attend SWIC Manufacturing Training Academy ribbon cutting at Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville. Click here to watch.
…Adding… Pritzker was asked about the hot mic comments today…
All I was referring to is, I don’t like the polls, right? Joe Biden is behind by a couple of points nationally. I think we should be doing a lot better. I’ve certainly said that President Biden should get out there more talk to the American public, make sure that he’s communicating about the issues that are important to them and that the Democratic Party stands up for. And so I don’t like the fact that we’re behind, and I think we can do much better. And I’m going to go campaign for him and watch him win in November.
*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***
* Sun-Times | Ahead of DNC, city officials to close, cordon off one of Chicago’s largest, most visible homeless camps: The “tent city” sandwiched for years between the Dan Ryan expressway and the 1100 block of South Desplaines Street will be cleared out on Wednesday and permanently cordoned off, Brandie Knazze, commissioner of the city’s Department of Family and Support Services, told the Chicago Sun-Times. Nearly all of the 22 residents living there recently in a few dozen blue and orange tents have agreed to move to a city-operated shelter of 60 beds at 100 E. Chestnut St., in the former Tremont Hotel. This year’s inaugural summer-shelter arrangement has been funded through Aug. 31, Knazze said, a little more than a week after the end of the convention expected to draw tens of thousands of Democratic leaders and supporters, as well as protesters.
* CBS | $100 million from State of Illinois to go to anti-violence programs in Chicago: Lori Crowder, the executive director of the Alliance of Local Service Organizations, said a coalition of seven community organizations will be able to use $5 million in new funding for outreach, case management, victim services, employment and education, and mental health and behavioral health services. “What we know to be true is this: when jobs go up, violence goes down,” Crowder said. “When education goes up, violence goes down.”
*** Statehouse News ***
* Tribune | Illinois legislators and CUB urge rejection of water rate hikes requested by Aqua Illinois, Illinois American: Later in 2013, a state law was passed that allows Illinois American and Aqua Illinois to buy up depreciated water and wastewater systems, and charge consumers for the acquisition costs, according to CUB. […] State Rep. Nabeela Syed, a Democrat from Palatine, argued against granting water utilities a rate increase, citing poor service experiences reported by her municipality and others.
*** Statewide ***
* Forbes | Illinois Marijuana Sales Hit $1 Billion So Far This Year: Governor JB Pritzker announced on Wednesday that Illinois hit $1 billion in marijuana retail sales on July 1, 2024. This figure includes over $850 million in adult-use marijuana sales and nearly $150 million in medical marijuana sales. […] Additionally, total marijuana sales for the Fiscal Year (from July 1 through June 30) in 2024 exceeded $2 billion, up from $1.9 billion in FY 2023 to $1.8 billion in FY 2022.
*** Chicago ***
* Tribune | Chicago Public Schools’ $9.9 billion proposed budget purports to close $500 million deficit, for now: The total proposed budget’s $500 million increase over last year’s $9.4 billion reflects facility investments that are “vital to keeping facilities operating safely and smoothly,” according to CPS. Representing the lion’s share of CPS spending, school budgets will cumulatively increase by $149 million compared with the start of last year — a margin that the district attributed to the cost of required services for special education students, state-mandated charter school funding increases and expanded bilingual services. Staff salaries and student benefits make up nearly 70% of the total budget, which will fund more than 800 additional full-time employees this year, CPS announced.
* Tribune | School board candidates present platforms during forum: ‘This is a really big deal’: More than half of the candidates running for one of 10 elected seats on the new, hybrid Chicago Board of Education gathered at a virtual forum Wednesday evening to introduce themselves and their platforms. Funding neighborhood schools, improving disability services and literacy rates, and balancing the district’s budget were among the issues discussed at the event, which was hosted via Zoom by the education nonprofit Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education.
* WTTW | Illinois Reparations Commission to Host Public Hearings, Starting in Chicago: The state’s reparations commission is kicking off public hearings across Illinois — with the first taking place in Chicago on Saturday. The commission is tasked with researching and reporting on possible reparatory actions for Black residents who are descendants of slavery. Leaders said the public’s input will be used in developing proposals for policymakers.
* Sun-Times | Fact check: Viral tweet wrongly claims Brandon Johnson blamed Richard Nixon for Chicago violence: But Johnson didn’t blame Nixon for violence in Chicago. The mayor’s only mention of Nixon came after reflecting on President Lyndon B. Johnson’s war on poverty. “Black death has been unfortunately accepted in this country for a very long time,” the mayor said. “We had a chance 60 years ago to get at the root causes and people mocked President Johnson, and we ended up with Richard Nixon.”
* Lake County News-Sun | Lake County Forest Preserves District to expand lakefront footprint: The Lake County Forest Preserves District Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the purchase of 18.2 acres of the former Ft. Sheridan adjacent to the Openlands preserve Tuesday in Waukegan, creating a larger footprint along Lake Michigan. With a little more of the Lake Michigan shoreline now in the public domain, Lake County Board Chair Sandy Hart, D-Lake Bluff, said planning should be more long-term than the usual strategic planning.
* Daily Herald | Fire ‘buddies’ helping build pool deck for Schaumburg girl with cerebral palsy: Schaumburg firefighters are continuing their friendship with a 7-year-old girl with cerebral palsy and epilepsy by helping build a deck for the beloved swimming pool she recently received through Make-A-Wish. Kelly Boscardin said her daughter Savanah, though nonverbal, has been delighted by the firefighters since even before she was selected for the Project Fire Buddies chapter served by the local union.
*** Downstate ***
* Forbes | Discover The Midwest’s AI Powerhouse: The University Of Illinois: It was no coincidence that Arthur C. Clarke chose Urbana, Illinois, as the birthplace of HAL, the infamous fictional AI from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Back then, the University of Illinois (U of I) was becoming a powerhouse in the fields of technology HAL represents. Today, the U of I’s Grainger College of Engineering and its brand-new Siebel School of Computing and Data Science constitute a world-leading hub of AI innovation beyond anything Clarke could have imagined. Since 2019, the university has conducted over $270 million of AI-related research projects, spurring advancements in agriculture, biotechnology, education, and other fields while equipping the next generation of inclusive experts with hands-on experience.
* NBC Chicago | Rep. Mike Bost, Darren Bailey among Illinois delegates to 2024 RNC in Milwaukee: According to the list released Wednesday, Reps. Mary Miller and Mike Bost will both be among the delegates headed to Milwaukee to nominate former President Donald Trump for the third consecutive election cycle. […] Each of Illinois’ 17 Congressional districts will send three delegates apiece to the convention, according to the Republican Party’s press release. In addition, 13 at-large delegates will also cast ballots during the event, which kicks off Monday at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum.
* Sun-Times | Downstate man who wore Revolutionary War costume and gas mask at Jan. 6 riot gets 2.5 months in jail: Derek Nelson, 31, of Danville pleaded guilty in March to a misdemeanor charge of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. Prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington, D.C., that an “indelible” image of Nelson and a companion appearing as “willing foot soldiers of chaos” crystallized the harm caused “to the perceived stability of our republic.”
*** National ***
* AP | EU accepts Apple pledge to let rivals access ‘tap to pay’ iPhone tech to resolve antitrust case: The deal promises more choice for Europeans. iPhone users will be able to set a default wallet of their choice while mobile wallet developers will be able to use important iPhone verification functions like Face ID, Vestager said. […] The changes that Apple is making are to remain in force for a decade, will apply throughout the bloc’s 27 countries plus Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, and will be monitored by a trustee.
